Description

The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) prefield workflow involves interpreting aerial imagery to determine whether each plot in a given inventory year may meet FIA’s definition of forest land. The primary purpose of this determination is to minimize inventory costs by avoiding unnecessary ground surveys of plots that are obviously in nonforest areas. Since the initiation of the annual forest inventory, prefield data collection has consisted primarily of a simple visit/non-visit determination, along with a few regionally inconsistent ancillary variables. Therefore very little information was recorded for nonforest areas with trees, such as recreational developments and urban forests. Beginning in the 2012 inventory year, a nonforest land use code and a continuous tree canopy cover value will be implemented for all non-visited and non-sampled plots. The purpose of this paper is to describe the new prefield protocol and illustrate potential applications of the new variables.